[wordup] Dogged resistance to canine drug searches

[Adam Shand]

Oz started pushing their awareness into the American psyche with Paul
Hogan and the "Put another shrimp on the barby" campaign.  Now they lead
off with another bold campaign "We can violate your rights faster then
anyone else!".

Go Australia!  You'd think England and the USA would be doing a better
job of catching up with Oz's new world order, but sadly they seem to
lack the same "go get'er attitude".

Adam.

Via: graham (exMAUS-0800hr) <graham at geekflat.net>
From: http://asia.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/05/22/aust.drugs/

Dogged resistance to canine drug searches
By Grant Holloway

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) --When the New South Wales government widened
police powers to search people for drugs using sniffer dogs, civil
rights groups were outraged.

But now they are using mobile technology and the Internet to fight back.

Under legislation introduced last December, NSW police no longer require
a "reasonable suspicion" an individual is carrying illegal drugs to
conduct a search if the person is at, or entering or leaving a
"designated place".

Those designated places include: hotels and clubs, the public transport
system, sporting and entertainment events and public parades.

The NSW Council of Civil Liberties has responded by setting up a web
site to thwart the police use of sniffer dogs.

One of the services it provides is a free mobile phone text-messaging
system to alert subscribers when police sniffer dogs are in their area.

The site has had more than half a million hits in less than 24 hours
since its launch and more than 1,000 people have registered for the SMS
text service.

President of the council Cameron Murphy told CNN Wednesday there was
huge support for the site, mainly from people who never take drugs but
have been searched by police -- often a number of times -- under the new
law.

"People are sick and tired of having their rights abused," Murphy said.
'Irresponsible stunt'

NSW Police Minister Michael Costa, who has championed the new
legislation, on Tuesday night labelled the site a "stupid, irresponsible
stunt", according to newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald.

He said he was seeking legal advice on whether the site could be shut
down.

But Murphy said the council had received its own legal advice before
establishing the site and had been advised it was doing nothing illegal.

"We are advised we are complying with the law," he said.

"All we are doing is telling people not to carry drugs and telling them
where police detection operations are taking place," he said.

The site says it does not condone the use of any illegal substances.

It does, however, pass on information on how to prevent a sniffer dog
from detecting drugs an individual may be carrying and details a
citizen's legal rights should they be searched.
Volunteers

Murphy said the text system used ground-breaking technology to alert
subscribers with messages received less than three seconds after a
report of sniffer-dog activity is made.

How it works is subscribers designate which areas of the Sydney
metropolitan area they usually socialize in, and on what days and during
which hours.

A team of volunteers meanwhile agree to message the Web site's server
the instant they see sniffer dogs operating.

Specially designed software at the Web site is able to receive and
automatically re-route the messages to the subscribers' specifications
in a matter of seconds.

Murphy said the software was designed by a programmer who was not a drug
user and who had been searched by police under the new laws while
standing on a railway platform.